Online housing forms recommended

Online housing forms could be beneficial to residential life, many Norwich students said in interviews.

Many universities already use the internet for students to turn in housing forms. Norwich, however, continues to use a paper system.

A discussion has been sparked on whether it would be beneficial to move to online housing forms, according to the director of residence life and orientation.

"Our process right now is we generate a form that can maximize the amount of information we can collect for those returning in spring or fall," said Iphy Tanguay, director of residence life and orientation at Norwich. "We get them in order for the mail room and then they stuff them in the mailboxes."

Every residential student has a mailbox; this is why resident life takes advantage of giving those forms to the mail room for distribution. But even then, problems arise from relying solely on the mailroom.

"Sometimes they just won't be in my mailbox," said April Byllaardt, 21, a junior history major from Stormville, N.Y. "Other than that I don't really have too much trouble with them. I may lose it or drop it in the water but that's it."

When students do not turn in their forms, it causes problems for the people in residential life as well as the students.

"As for us, we don't know what the students want to do," said Jose Sinclair, assistant director of residence life and orientation at Norwich. "As we are doing our numbers we look at this is how many students want to stay, that are coming, that are admitted but now we have this big question about what to do with those 50 or so that didn't turn them in."

"As far as for the students, especially for the 16 who don't have them in as of right now, by 4 p.m. they potentially don't have housing," Tanguay said. "At the very least they don't have priority housing. It is either a lounge or off campus."

Some question whether an online format would help.

"I don't think necessarily that it would help students turn them in on time," said Josh Brunton, 20, a junior biology major and assistant resident coordinator for South Hall from Wolfeboro N.H. "I think it might be easier to send reminders, like a piece of paper in their mailbox, maybe they would be more likely to do it right then and there instead of walking to the residential life office."

Both online and paper systems have pros and cons.

"Sometime when you do everything online you lose that sort of personal touch with certain things," Sinclair said. "When you have students checking every single box, you're just going to sit there and be confused about what they really want to do. So, to have that personal touch when they come to us and say, ‘This is what I want to do,' makes things a lot easier."

"Definitely I think a benefit would be the data-entry piece," Tanguay said. "We put a spreadsheet together with all the information given to use through the forms and if we had a specific software, it would do it for us."

Staff members of residential life are not the only ones who have concerns about online housing forms. Students are nervous about it, too.

"I think it could be eco-friendly and would be a lot easier for the housing office," said Keira Holmes, 21, a business management major from Los Angeles, Calif. "But online the forms are easier to lose, there could be glitches in the system, or you could email it back and they would never get it. There are just a lot of things that could go wrong with electronics."

Transitioning to an online system will take time, money and planning to make sure the software is worth the investment.

"I think it would take some time, especially because of our current economy because (purchasing software) would be seen as an extra," Tanguay said. "In order to put the right system in place it would cost money and the software we are looking at is most of the residential life budget."

The software costs about $5,000.

"We are looking at a system now that might assist us with what admissions collects for the freshmen and dump it into software. That will help us triple up at this point," Tanguay said. "At minimum that's $5,000 and that is on sale because of the economy. Last summer it was $10,000, which is most if not all the residential life budget."

However, no matter what system Norwich decides to use there is still one thing that plays a factor to either systems' success: The students.

"The most important thing is for the students to be responsible," Sinclair said. "Because regardless of what system you use, you still have to have their feedback."

"I think it could easily be done and it could easily be done by students," Brunton said. "I think that Norwich needs more student-driven projects. We have a lot of talent here on campus that could do this and some of it does get used but I think more of it could be used.